A CUSTOMS officer on trial for allegedly helping two Merseyside gangsters scam their way out of prison told a court he was a victim of their lies and they had made him "a mug".

Paul Cook (pictured above), 60, stands accused of helping north Liverpool crime lords John Haase and Paul Bennett get out of prison after less than 12 months of 18-year sentences for drugs.

It is alleged he was in on the scam that saw Haase and Bennett plant caches of guns and drugs around Merseyside in 1994 and 1995 and then tip off the police, claiming they were for rival underworld figures.

Cook, Kingston Crown Court has been told during the seven weeks of the trial so far, was the pair's “handler” for HM Customs and Excise, after they offered to give up information in return for reduced sentences for international drug trafficking.

When the pair pleaded guilty and came to learn their fate, Cook, the court has heard, wrote a letter in their favour, saying they had provided "valuable information" that had lead police to the weapons and drugs.

Haase and Bennett were eventually given Royal Pardons at the behest of the Home Secretary's office and freed after less than a year.

Cook denies knowing the tip-offs were false and that the pair were having them planted by associates on the outside. Over nearly 18 months, the authorities were directed to make 35 seizures by information put forward by Haase and Bennett.

Yesterday, on his third day on the witness stand in his own defence, Cook was cross-examined by junior prosecuting barrister, Duncan Atkinson.

Mr Atkinson asked him: "You were clear from the outset it would be reckless in the extreme for you to see someone of the type of Haase on your own. That was obviously common sense.

"Applying common sense, someone like Haase is perfectly capable of manipulating situations to his own advantage and you could be the victim of that?"

Cook, who denies charges of conspiring to pervert the course of justice and misconduct in a public office, replied: "I am the victim of that."

Earlier in the day, his own counsel, Peter Wright, QC, asked Leeds-born Cook how he felt now about allowing Haase and Bennett go free from prison.

He replied: "To use a Yorkshire term, I feel a mug. I feel I was manipulated.

"It is low point of what I consider a fairly substantial and successful career.

"It is something I have to live with and feel embarrassed it happened. I should stop kicking myself because other people all the way through were involved, but I do kick myself because that is the type of person I am."

Cook says he was given no training about handling serious criminals by Customs, and his bosses were kept informed of his dealings with Haase and Bennett.

He says there was never any time they said he was doing anything wrong, and they approved the letter that went before the Liverpool Crown Court judge.

Cook also denies assertions by several ex-Merseyside Police officers working at that time that they told him it was all a set-up.